“Living With Volcanoes”: Cross-Curricular Teaching in the High School Classroom

ABSTRACT

A new, interdisciplinary high school geoarchaeology curriculum unit, titled “Living with Volcanoes,” was created and tested in two pilot lessons with 30 high school students total studying geography and classical civilization in northern England. Students were highly engaged during the curriculum unit and showed positive learning gains and favorable shifts in perceptions as measured immediately before and after its implementation. Geoarchaeology combines disciplinary knowledge from geoscience and archaeology to construct novel approaches to past human inhabitation and environmental interaction. The curriculum unit was designed to introduce this field to high school students, following guidelines from interdisciplinary studies, and it was modified iteratively, based on interviews with four high school teachers of relevant classes. It combines short lectures and group work in a 90 min, interactive format to address a variety of questions surrounding the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and its impact on the town of Pompeii and other nearby areas. Pilot survey and observational data, combined with feedback from students and teachers, were used to modify the curriculum unit. Restructured case study questions now provide better scaffolding for students, and teachers are provided with an answer key to better support facilitation. “Living with Volcanoes” has the potential to be utilized in cross-disciplinary recruitment for both geoscience and archaeology, at the high school and introductory postsecondary level. This broader, interdisciplinary approach to curriculum development may be applied to other fields of geoscience that transcend common disciplinary boundaries.

Key words::

• high school
• K–12
• A-level
• interdisciplinary
• group work
• volcanic hazards
• geoarchaeology
• geography
• classical civilization
• space and Earth Science

Acknowledgments

Thanks go to faculty, staff, and peers at the University of Sheffield for many useful discussions on this work. In particular, we would like to thank Linda Billam and Dr. Jane Rempel for providing college and 6th form contacts. We are grateful to the teachers and students who volunteered their time to be involved in this project and shared valuable insight on the curriculum unit and its development. Thanks also go to Dr. Brendan Duffy for a thoughtful review of an early draft of this manuscript. Comments from two anonymous reviewers, an associate editor, and the editor-in-chief (Dr. Kristen St. John) greatly improved this manuscript. This research was approved by the Human Ethics Committee in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield.

APPENDIX A. Observation Protocol.

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APPENDIX B. Pre/postinstruction questionnaire, question format, and associated curriculum unit learning objectives.